Jonathan Swift Lying Quotations

A lie does not consist in the indirect position of words, but in the desire and intention, by false speaking, to deceive and injure your neighbour.

Let a man be ne'er so wise, he may be caught with sober lies.

A lie is an excuse guarded

Although the devil be the father of lies, he seems, like other great inventors, to have lost much of his reputation by the continual improvements that have been made upon him.

Brutes find out where their talents lie; a bear will not attempt to fly.

This single Stick, which you now behold ingloriously lying in that neglected Corner, I once knew in a flourishing State in a Forest: It was full of Sap, full of Leaves, and full of Boughs: But now, in vain does the busy Art of Man pretend to vie with Nature, by tying that withered Bundle of Twigs to its sapless Trunk: It is at best but the Reverse of what it was; a Tree turned upside down, the Branches on the Earth, and the Root in the Air.

Pray steal me not, I'm Mrs. Dingley's, Whose heart in this four-footed thing lies.

Brutes find out where their talents lie; A bear will not attempt to fly, A foundered horse will oft debate Before he tries a five barred gate. A dog by instinct turns aside Who sees the ditch too deep and wide, But man we find the only creature Who, led by folly, combats nature; Who, when she loudly cries-Forbear! With obstinacy fixes there; And where the genius least inclines, Absurdly bends his whole designs.

It often happens that, if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no further occasion for it.

An excuse is a lie guarded.

"Lawyers Are": Those whose interests and abilities lie in perverting, confounding and eluding the law.